David Cunliffe believes it’s time to consider publicly-funded elections.

It comes in the wake of revelations about National’s Cabinet Club and fundraising practices by all parties.

The Labour leader says it’s time to have a conversation.

“There’s a trade off to be made between investing more taxpayers funding in the political process to guarantee fairness and democracy on the one hand and making sure that every dollar is well and prudently spent.”

Former Labour Party dirty tactics coordinator Pete Hodgson and current Labour party representative on the Representation Commission has been stung by the Taxpayers’ Union in what looks to be a cash for mates scheme down in Dunedin. Pete’s apparently been doing some ‘lobbying’ for his best mate, fellow Labour Party comrade and Mayor Dave Cull.

This morning the Taxpayers’ Union went public with material concerning a payment (or payments) totalling $3,400 by the Dunedin City Council to former MP Pete Hodgson with no documentation or contract.

[…]

According to the Council, Mr Hodgson’s work consisted of “lobbying and advocating on behalf of the Council” and there is no supporting documentation.

The Council has told us that:

Everything was verbal. The Council could not provide a single report, email, or even letter of engagement.

All of the contracts were negotiated verbally.

The contracts were negotiated by the Mayor and there is no documentation to explain the deal.

In Australia the unions and the Labor party stand charged with many, many counts of political corruption. In Australia they have an institution with teeth, the powers to compel evidence, the powers to prosecute…it is called the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Fiji also has an Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Why not here?

With the latest revelations of political corruption involving the Labour party, from David Cunliffe on down, Shane Taurima who is a prospective Labour party candidate and TVNZ, we are seeing and extension of the willingness of the left-wing to abandon any semblance of ethics in journalism and corrupt their organisation like Alistair Thompson has done to Scoop Media.

For years the left-wing has accused the right of collusion and corruption with the media, and now we are seeing month after month of left-wing politicians prostituting and prostrating themselves before the altar of corruption.

The Herald reports on the latest fiasco:

TVNZ unit manager Shane Taurima has resigned from the state broadcaster after revelations he took part in a Labour Party hui and that TVNZ facilities were used to host Labour Party meetings.

3 News reported tonight that TVNZ offices were used to host a meeting of Labour’s Tamaki Makaurau branch last year. TVNZ staff emails were also used to organise a subsequent hui in January this year which Labour leader David Cunliffe attended. Mr Taurima, the head of TVNZ’s Maori and Pacific unit, had acted as a facilitator and spoken about the Maori vote at that January hui. Read more »

While convicted blackmailer, fraudster and serial litigant Graham McCready continues to cut a swathe through our judicial processes it should be noted that more and more politicians are breaking the law, especially electoral law.

While I cannot condone McCready’s use of the court for his own style of bullying there are many other who do the same thing, pretending to be litigants in person but costing their victims thousands.

With the failure of the Police though to action complaints against politicians it is time for something more robust that private prosecutions. In Australia we are witnessing what happens when regulators like the Independent Commission Against Corruption actually do what out Police have singularly failed to do you have to wonder why we don’t have such a body too.

Some legal experts have explained their doubts that Mr McCready will succeed in getting a private prosecution against Mr Brown. They say he will need witnesses to allege a link between the free hotel rooms at Sky and his support for SkyCity’s conference centre bid. Without that, there is no proof. Read more »

McCready said that Brown’s acceptance of the gifts led to “favourable consideration” towards SkyCity and he would prosecute the mayor under section 105(1) of the Crimes Act – corruption and bribery of an official.He was expected to appeal to the Attorney General to allow the case against Brown to proceed.Earlier this week, McCready backed down on an announcement he would file papers against Brown’s wife, Shan Inglis. Read more »

The state government is set to pass extraordinary laws to strip corrupt former Labor minister Eddie Obeid and his family of at least $30 million in profits from a coal deal at the centre of a historic corruption probe.

A day after Premier Barry O’Farrell announced the government would pass special laws to tear up three corruption-tainted coal exploration licences, Mr O’Farrell said it was also working on laws to confiscate the proceeds of corrupt activity by former Labor figures and businessmen.

He said on Tuesday the laws to cancel the licences would be introduced in state Parliament next week, while additional laws to claw back proceeds of corrupt coal ventures from Mr Obeid and others were still
in development.

A private eye who has helped two clients lay bribery charges under the Secret Commissions Act in the past month says the penalties need updating as they haven’t changed in more than a 100 years.

Danny Toreson of Thompson and Toreson Investigations would not name the clients, but said: “One is a commercial organisation and the other is a government body”.

The Secret Commissions Act is the main law outlawing staff taking backhanders for awarding work and contracts without their employer’s knowledge. For example, a government worker could give a contract to a company in return for a secret payment or benefit. Read more »

Ministers who breach the code of conduct will be answerable to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for the first time after Premier Barry O’Farrell announced support for the regulator’s recommendations.

Following inquiries involving former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald over the allocation of lucrative coal licences, the ICAC advised the government to adopt several anti-corruption measures.

One was that the NSW government’s ministerial code of conduct becomes ”an applicable code” for the purposes of the ICAC Act, meaning serious breaches could amount to corrupt conduct.

Additionally, ICAC recommended that the government overhaul the way mining licences were issued in NSW.